Climate Change

Climate Change or Climate Chaos, which is probably a more accurate term, is caused by the burning of fossil fuels (such as oil, gas, coal). By burning fossil fuels carbon dioxide is released which is the major greenhouse gas causing the earth to warm up excessively.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges we face today, the first step towards tackling the problem is to make sure everyone understands exactly what the challenge is and the difference they can make.

 

Epping Forest District Council Environmental Protection Portfolio Holder, Councillor Mary Sartin

The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon and without it the earth would be to cold for us to live on. The greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (CO2, methane, nitrous oxide and CFC’s – chlorinated fluorocarbons such as Freon) makes some of the suns rays reflect back to earth creating a milder climate (see picture). However, what has happened since we started burning fossil fuels (since the start of the industrial revolution, mid end of 18th century) is that these so called green house gasses, where carbon dioxide is the major one has increased to a much higher concentration. It is these higher concentrations of greenhouse gases that cause the earth temperature to increase unnaturally because more of the sun’s rays are reflected back on earth.

What is Climate Change?

To help explain climate change please view the simple animation to explain the basics.

Click here or on the image to the right to view the animation

Climate change is already happening and it is now regarded as the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. Globally, the ten hottest years on record have all occurred since the beginning of the 1990s.

Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. The effects will be felt here in the UK and internationally where there may be severe problems for people in regions that are particularly vulnerable to change such as Africa and South-East Asia.

The sea level has already risen 20 cm since the start of the industrial revolution and it is estimated to at least rise by 30 cm by the end this century. However, the effects of climate change depend upon how much we act to reduce the emissions of the green house gases. The average global temperature has risen by 1°C/ 33.8 °F and if we could slow down the increase so that the increase will only be 2° the changes will be less sever. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have predicted a global mean temperature rise of between 1.6°C and 5.8°C by the end of the century depending on how much action that is taken. The degrees may not sound that much but it is important to remember that when Britain had the last ice age the mean global temperature was only 5°C lower than from today.

A major compilation of studies have also shown that the effects of a 2 degrees increase of the global temperature would be enough to:
• Decrease crop yields both in the developing and developed world
• Triple the poor harvests in Europe and Russia
• Large-scale displacement of people in North Africa from desertification
• Up to 2.8bn people at risk of water shortage
• 97% loss of coral reefs
• Total loss of summer Arctic sea ice causing extinction of the polar bear and the walrus
• Spread of malaria in Africa and North America

There are also fears that a 2 degree increase could be enough to cause the Greenland ice sheet and the Antarctic ice sheet to melt and that would cause a 7 meter rise of the sea level over a 1000 year period. It would also most probably affect the Gulf stream which whole of Northern Europe including UK depend on for the milder climate. This is caused by the increased levels of freshwater in the ocean, which dilute the current and make it weaker.

This is not great news but scientists still believe that we can lessen the effect by acting now. We all have a responsibility to decrease our carbon dioxide emissions and if we all do our bit we can still make the changes less sever.

Return to the mainpage by using the below 'back' button to see the list of suggested actions and energy savings that can be done in the home, office, travel. etc.

Photo showing a flooded Theydon Bois
(from www.theydon.org.uk)